Beijing 2013: Highlights

We saw so many historically and architectural important and beautiful places in Beijing. It was a wonderful experience, but the pictures tend to blur together into one big pagoda after a while, so I'll just hit the high spots with a brief description!

Beijing 2013: Olympic Park

What a beautiful view we had of Beijing Olympic Park! Whether by day or night, smoggy or clear, inside the hotel or out, we saw some very pretty sides of the city.

Beijing 2013: One Big Party

There was one interesting occurrence that really brought home the unusual political system that China has. With a history of communism since 1949 and the odd co-mingling of that with capitalism today, our guide explained that China has a "one party" system. But we American and European tourists had a very difficult time grasping that concept. How does it work? Who do you vote for? What are party members even called? Certainly not representatives, since they don't answer to the public! It all came to a head when we were visiting Tiananmen Square and trying to understand the lack of parlimentary buildings. In fact, the "White House" equivalent, where the Chinese president lives, is secret! The Chinese people don't even know where their leader resides! And most Chinese no nothing of what occurred in Tiananmen Square in 1989, which is ironically the only thing Americans likely DO know about China and its political history.

It was certainly an usual experience to explain democracy and the divided branches of the American system to our young Chinese guide. He couldn't seem to comprehend such a system, just as we cringed at the idea of his!

Great Hall of the People

Soldiers in Tiananmen Square (you can see Chairmen Mao's picture in the background)

We got a tiny taste of how seriously China takes their communism when we visited the mausoleum of Chairman Mao Zedong. There is generally a several hour wait in line to go through, but we came long right before closing and zipped in. We had to leave hats, bags, purses, backpacks, etc. all outside with a friend or rent a locker. Nothing is allowed inside except your person! No cameras, no flowers, etc. We went through several layers of security and then were rushed along a pathway and up the stairs into the mausoleum. We were herded through the building and past the preserved body of their revered communist leader (who was draped in the Chinese flag and encased in a glass box, no less). It was a bit surreal and I'm certainly glad we didn't stand in line for any length of time for the privilege, but it did seem to give us a glimpse into the culture and politics of this country.

Mao's Mausoleum

Beijing 2013: Home away from Home

You may have noticed these posts are late. I'm having to back-date my posts (it's actually near the end of June now and we're already back from China). This is because China does not allow access to Blogger. Nor YouTube. And has spotty WiFi to boot. So, I couldn't blog while in China. And we were so busy, I didn't have a lot of time to upload photos to include with my text, anyway. But we do take our freedoms (and Internet freedoms) for granted here in the States, so the infringement thereof was an interesting first impression.

But speaking of first impressions, our hotel is beautiful. Since Jeff is presenting a keynote paper at the conference, his trip expenses are covered, including the room. What a great blessing, because some of the other cheaper hotels are apparently not nearly as comfortable. Air conditioning is spotty, breakfast buffet limited to Chinese food, no WiFi, staff only speak Mandarin; these are some of the issues other conference participants have had to deal with.

But we have a nice suite with gorgeous views out the humongous windows of our 13th story room (though very superstitious about certain numbers, 13 is not one of them in Chinese culture, so this hotel actually has a 13th floor). The staff is friendly, and language is not such a barrier here (although all the concierges have pretty poor English, which makes getting directions or advice rather difficult)!

We have a corner room, so our bedroom and sitting room face Olympic park and our bathroom looks out over the convention center. Our 70+ square meter suite is apparently bigger than most Beijing apartments!

I absolutely love our double vanity vessel sinks and the iridescent blue-green mosaic tile around the tub and walk-in shower. It's given me new ideas about our downstairs bathroom remodel!

Beijing 2013: Travels

World travel may sound exotic, but the getting there is mostly a grind to be endured. At least, that's the case in the economy cabin! Business and first class seem quite tolerable, maybe even enjoyable, but we have neither the miles nor the moolah for the upgrade, so steerage level for us!

But I can't complain. Our flights to China went as well as could be hoped, with only the basic hassles and standard discomfort that is three legs of a trip to get half way around the world. The upside: I can now say I've been to Japan! We had a connection in Tokyo, although it was dark when we landed and took off, so I can't claim to have seen Japan, just been there. And their public bathrooms are all I could have hoped for. The acclaimed Toto toilet was in every stall with the fabulous Washlet toilet seat that washes your rear, plays sounds to hide your sounds, deodorizes, etc., etc. Good thing there was a multilingual explanation sheet or I might have missed my connection trying to figure out how to flush!

How much wood could a Jeffrey chuck...?

I mentioned our mountain of wood chips in a previous post. In all, we had eight giant piles of wood chips delivered when the local tree trimmers were clearing around area powerlines. One pile is all cedar and will be used to mulch the existing beds. But the remaining mixed piles will form the foundation of my new landscape plan on the east side. That long stretch of property gets only morning sun and has a good deal of shade from the large oaks, cedar, hackberry, and various other trees. Grass never grew well there and it's been host to brambles, poison ivy, and other undesirable weeds. So I mowed it all down and am smothering it with cardboard and wood chips. I'll mix in compost, manure, gin trash, and the like as we're able to eventually create a woodland bed for azaleas, hydrangeas, ferns, hostas, and other shade lovers.

The expanse is about 10-15 feet wide in places and extends at least 100 feet, so trucking in topsoil would have been astronomically expensive. I'm really excited about the free wood chips, but it's back-breaking work to move them around and spread them out as we shape the beds. We may have to eventually call in some machinery to get it all where it needs to go, but right now it's our regular morning workout. Jeff calls it "Farm Strong", our personal version of CrossFit!

Queen of the hill

Maybe one day, those piles will look like this!

Good thing we have the girls for help!

Conjunction Junction

May 26th found us at NASA Space and Rocket Center for an astronomy lecture and viewing. It was the ideal night to see a triple conjunction, the close alignment of three planets in the sky (some believe the Star of Bethlehem was an example of a very unique conjunction). On this past Sunday evening, it happened to be Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter. You could see it with the naked eye, but the Von Braun Astronomical Society was on hand with many sizes and types of telescopes to give us a close-up view, including several of Jupiter's moons.

But, more fascinating to us was Saturn! After the trio of planets set in the horizon, the astronomers turned their telescopes the opposite direction and honed in on Saturn. I had never seen that particular planet with a good quality ten inch telescope. It was amazing! There is no describing how crisp and clear the planet, its rings, and the moons were. It was a tiny miniature of every drawing or diagram or model I've ever seen. It was so adorable you just wanted to put the little thing in your pocket! After we enjoyed a turn or two, it was fun to stand back and watch other adults and kids catch their first glimpse of the magnified sight. There was real joy and amazement from tiny tots to elderly grandparents. What a treat for all ages!

Rockin' Robin

My tree trimmer friend brought me more than just wood chips yesterday! I've been getting free loads of wood chips delivered for the landscape beds the last few days. When I went out to meet the truck Tuesday morning, the workman climbed out with a tiny baby bird on his shoulder. He said he found it while picking up some brush at the previous job site, so there's no telling if the nest was destroyed in a downed tree or if it came to be on the ground for some other reason. But since he was working, he asked if I would take it.

My mom frequently rescued baby birds when I was younger, so I've had a bit of experience with it. But sadly, the death rate seems rather high. I can only remember one baby making it, but I suppose the principle is more in the caring and trying than in the success. So, of course, I took little Robin and we're trying to make a go of it.

She (I don't have any idea how to sex a baby bird, but since all our other avian friends are female, I guess she can be, too); anyway, she is very active and healthy and doesn't seem frightened. She peeps a lot and likes to sit on a finger or shoulder. She takes food well and produces nice, plump stool, so perhaps she has a fighting chance. We'll see!

Just in time...

for Memorial Day! I got my small porch planters done with clearance annuals and US flags actually made in America (love Lowes!).

And we got the bunting UV treated and hung back up for summer:

Wipeout!

We currently have no gutters on the house (I have my eye on half-round copper ones, but that would be done the road a bit). As such, there is an area on the front corner of the house that washes out frequently when it rains. It happens to be right in the landscape bed, so I avoided planting anything there for fear it would be ruined. But now that all the other landscaping had gotten established and lush, that desolate area looked forlorn.

So I decided to take a chance and see if plant material will 1) brighten the spot, and 2) keep the soil in place as an erosion barrier. It's just free and clearance plants, so there is little risk. I'll report back after a few gully washers and update the blog as to our success or failure!

This corner used to be bare, but some Blue Rug Juniper and a few leftover annuals will soon fill in and hopefully make it cheery and secure.

Bird Watching

Doo, doo, doo, Lookin' out my back door...

On a more domestic note:

DH

In the Internet forum world, "DH" is shorthand for "dear husband". In Jeff's eyes, it will always be "designated hitter". But today, my DH title is for "Designated House".

After taking down the (rather ugly) house numbers last spring to paint the fascia board, we finally have numerals on the bungalow again! I realized it was a problem only because we switched out the old mailbox a month or so ago and haven't found attractive digits for it yet. So here we sat for several weeks with no address numbers anywhere on the property. I always hate when houses aren't well marked, and I had fallen into the trap myself. Good thing Jeff has long arms and could reach to mount these floating numbers I so love!

Grilling Greats

We're probably way behind the curve, but we finally had our first grilled meal of the spring. I marinated some top sirloin while we played a game of tennis and then threw together a salad with our garden mesclun greens while the steak grilled. Topped off with a blue cheese vinaigrette, served with homemade lemon thyme green tea, and served on the patio table in the back lawn, it was a wonderful end to a lovely Thursday!

Mother's Day

We had a great time back in Arkansas for Mother's Day last weekend. And my sister-in-law taught us how to use the timer feature on our little point-and-shoot camera. It took several tries, much to the amusement of the waiting subjects, but it led to a great candid shot!

Climbing Clematis

I spent a lot of time and energy making the front of the house look nice last spring, but I never really got around to the back patio. Some pretty clematis and assorted annuals in a series of planters has helped that situation. I would love to build custom boxes around the base of the posts, but that may be a project for next year after I know for sure that the clematis gets enough sun in this particular location!